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Orca Lander
Background In 1965, the American countries were shocked when the Communist Party of Uruguay swept the elections, gaining over 60% of the vote. What was even more shocking was that the election wasn't even rigged - the Soviet leadership was just as surprised (albeit pleasantly) as the Allies. Communism had succeeded democratically. In a couple of years, reforms made by the Communist Party had turned the economy into full-fledged socialism. There was no need to remove the free elections, the communists were as popular as ever, and never turned to the sometimes brutal methods of the Soviet Union. Indeed, the population of Uruguay was mostly enthusiastic communists, and applied to help the Soviet cause en masse. The thought of including the country into the USSR was, however, soon forgotten due to the plain stupidity of such a move. Instead, the poor country built up a sizable industry, to be able to aid the Russians as much as they could without entering the war which had begun in Europe; still remaining formally neutral was the only way to avoid invasion by the neighbouring behemoths of Brazil and Argentina, both worried about the red insurgency in their neighbourhood. In regards to military equipment, Uruguay had never been worth mentioning. But will can be a strong weapon itself, and so the Uruguayan officers began brainstorming. Sending men to the red cause was no use; the Soviets had a never-ending supply of soldiers, so that was the least of their problems. The industry of Uruguay was yet too weak to support mass-producing more Soviet units, and a full-scale military presence would provoke the Allies, even though a naval base in South America would be a good possession. Thus they decided to focus on developing new technology, where they could use the available resources. This was initially done on Saturday evenings in the Uruguayan Secretary of Defense's living room. After a month of studying weak parts of the Soviet armed forces, they found that the pride of the Red Army; the battle tanks; all had a glaring weakness, namely water. No matter the power of an Apocalypse Tank, it would be stopped by even the smallest of lakes. Though Twinblades could circumvent this problem to some extent, they were vulnerable to anti air weaponry. There was no use equipping all the heavy tanks with a raft underneath, due to the cost required, so other measures were needed to be able to transport the tanks over water. And with these words the light came upon the planners in a Montevideo villa; a vehicle transport. It needed to be heavy, to allow it to carry more than one vehicle, but that would also make it slow. Heavy armour would also make it too big. These two complications were threatening the project - who wants a transport that three Javelin Soldiers could sink? - but a clever solution was found in making the ship a submarine, protecting it from most enemy fire. With the concept finished, the Uruguayans sent materials and blueprints to the Union for approval. The Soviets, having lost a whole division of JS-3 Terminator Tanks on the Baltic Sea and having had trouble with transports in the Greek archipelago, rapidly approved of the idea, and signed a cooperation deal with Uruguay. The South Americans developed and produced the boat itself while the Soviets outfitted them with Desolator spray tanks, which were used to protect the otherwise vulnerable transports. Meanwhile, the Motherland produced what required heavier industries, and recycled gear from old and scrapped units. The Orca Lander reached the fronts in the autumn of 1968, and proved its worth in the end of the war. Today it's a stable part of the Soviet navy, much to the pride of the Uruguayans, who care to mark every ship and every weapon with "Made in Uruguay". Category:Units Category:Units Originating from Uruguay